From the Richmond Examiner, 3/8/1866, p. 3, c. 3
THE EFFECTS OF PROLONGED CONFINEMENT upon the physical organization of man are illustrated in the condition of the Richard B. Turner, turnkey of the Libby Prison in the days of the Confederacy, and now a prisoner within a solitary cell of the prison over which he used to preside. Turner, through improved in flesh, is grey as a badger, and the snows of care and trouble, if not of age, are descending thickly upon him. He is anxious to know the charges against him, if there be any specific one, and a day or two since he sent for legal counsel in relation to his case. He is perfectly willing to be tried before the civil courts of the State, but not by a military commission.
Shields and Clarke, the murderers of the man Taylor, near Williamsburg, are the occupants of the cell adjacent to Turner’s. Their sentence has not yet been promulgated by the commission that tried them, but it will be made known in a few days. There is not a ray of hope for Shields; Clarke may save his neck. Meanwhile they are reckless and festive.
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- Categories:: Richmond Examiner After 1865 Richmond Newspapers Libby Prison Government Officials Martial Law Legal and Law Reconstruction in Richmond Union Occupation of Richmond Assaults and Shootings Courts Martial
- Published: 01 October 2017